They used to get me to teagh 'Study Skills' to 16 and 17 year olds who'd fallen through the cracks and left school with few or no qualifications. Some of them were definitely dim-witted, some had a limited grasp of English, some were lazy and others were arseholes!

I did my best, kept them in order, taught them the workarounds, the shortcuts, the tricks of the trade that not-very-bright folk like me use to get stuff into our heads, referred them for ESOL classes and so forth.

There was one lad who was very bright, but had it in his head that the world in general had it in for him because he was a white, working class, straight, cisgender male. He was challenging, anti-authoritarian and occasionally aggressive. For all the good it did him, because I'm the same!

A couple of years later, I ran into him. I was working for a professional body then and part of my job was visiting colleges to talk about the Institute and get students studying the area to sign up. He was smart, articulate, polite and asked sound questions.

There was lunch afterwards and he came to speak with me. He'd got a job with a non-profit doing basic admin, and they'd spotted his potential and sent him to college with a view to getting him into management. I said "So much for all the engineering you studied!" He said "I did use what I'd learned from you! How to make a point and win an argument without being rude or swearing. How to resolve a conflict without thumping somebody. How to sort out complete chaos without getting stressed." He looked me up and down, then said "You were a bastard, sir, but I learned more from you than from all the nice people!"

When I think of all the kids from those classes who tried, really tried, but never cracked it and ended up as janitors or pickers and packers, I think of him as well. I always figured he'd end up a career criminal.

Sometimes it's less about what or how you teach than it is about who you are!